


iron gold

by closingdoors



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Post-Avengers (2012), Pre-Iron Man 3, is this the shortest thing i've posted? feel like it is, just something silly n a little sweet tbh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-04 21:46:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15156269
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/closingdoors/pseuds/closingdoors
Summary: Tony Stark is a drama queen. Pepper Potts is not.





	iron gold

Tony doesn't appear out from under the car when she walks into the workshop. Pepper pulls her blazer off and hangs it neatly on the back of the chair, seating herself in it after. She kicks her heels off and lifts one of her feet into her lap to massage it.

"Uh oh."

Tony's voice is muffled. She switches feet.

"Excuse me?"

"You're always quiet when you've had a bad day," he observes. His hand appears briefly for a wrench. "JARVIS?" 

"Food has already been ordered, sir," replies the disembodied voice.

"Am I missing something here?"

Tony's hand reappears. Dum-E nudges a different wrench towards him. 

"You heard the man. Indian's on its way."

She loves Tony, she really does, but sometimes following his train of thought is impossible. His eccentricities are wonderful but they often leave her feeling slow. He's always amped up and she's woefully plain beside him. 

"Why?"

"To cheer you up. Duh."

Tony finally wheels out from under the car. He stands and reaches for a dirty rag, ineffectively trying to wipe the oil from his palms. Pepper rests her elbow against the desk and leans her cheek against her knuckles, allowing herself the privilege of unabashedly staring at him. He's in a vest top, a little dirty and a little sweaty, the biceps of his arms sinewy as he wipes down the tools he'd used, too. After, he reaches up to rub at his temple, smearing oil across his eyebrow.

When he turns, he catches her watching. He grins and she doesn't look away. 

"Like what you see?" He tosses the wrench in his hands, catching it after a neat flip. Then he pauses. "Huh."

"Tony?"

"Your hair."

Pepper reaches up and lets her hair fall free of its ponytail. It's getting longer than she's ever had it, but Tony has always encouraged her to step out of her own boundaries, while she's tried to shove him back inside rational ones. 

"Yes, I have hair."

"No. I mean, yes, you do but - did you dye it?"

Pepper touches her fingers to the ends of her hair. 

"I had an appointment this morning, yes." 

He stares at her.

"I hate it."

"Tony!"

Pepper rolls her eyes in exasperation. Most boyfriends wouldn't even notice the minor change in shade - which, she guesses, she should be grateful she has such an attentive, if a little borderline obsessive, boyfriend - yet alone declare such a vehement hate for it. She'd barely changed it, even in the mirror she could barely spot the difference. All she'd done was edge away from the 'strawberry' in strawberry blonde to, well, a little more _blonde_. It still shone red in the sunlight.

"It's barely even red anymore," he protests like a child.

"You're being dramatic."

"I'm right though."

"You are not!"

Tony drops the wrench onto the counter and begins to cross the room towards her. He reaches out and runs a few strands between his fingers, pouting.

"It's just hair, Tony."

"It was so - " Tony purses his lips, considering. "You always looked so fierce." 

His hands fall to his sides and he looks so disappointed that she briefly finds herself wondering if redheads are his thing. There'd never been a pattern to any of the women he'd brought home before. The only thing that had linked them was that they had all been beautiful and over their heads. She wonders if perhaps he wants her to be more like Natasha, hair a dark, sexy red. She pushes the thought away quickly.

"I'm gonna shower," he says, looking over the smears of dirt on his forearms as though he's only just noticed them. "Plate mine up for me?"

"Of course."

The food arrives shortly after he heads upstairs to shower. She serves his alongside her own and chews on her food thoughtfully. When he joins her, freshly showered and smelling like a dream, she forgets the plates in front of them in favour of snaking her hands under his sleep shirt. He doesn't argue. The food goes cold.

 

*

 

Later, in the dark of his bedroom, he runs his hands through her hair in a repetitive motion. He cups the back of her head and smooths his hand down, then spreads his fingers, fanning them through to her ends. Pepper sighs, sleepy and content, the ache in her feet beginning to melt away. 

"You know you're beautiful, right?"

The question makes her frown. The words aren't insincere - Tony rarely dishes out how he really feels, but when he does, it's intense and  _real_. 

"Tony?"

He sighs. His whole chest stutters with it and her body follows. She curls her fingers at his hip.

"I just - " He stops. She tilts her head and rests her chin beside his arc reactor to study him. "I know the press say a lot of stupid shit. I know you rise above it. But... I hope you know."

That surprises her. She always thought he'd been unaware to how the tabloids had reacted to them, as he had been about everything before their coupling. There'd been mixed reactions to them, of course. A lot to field through. The majority of it has died down now that they're approaching two years together, but every now and then a new report will pop up with fake sources, claiming he strayed from her in search of one last night of his playboy days. She knows it's all lies. 

"I don't listen to a word of it." 

Tony lets out another deep breath. She moulds herself around his body, straining to press a kiss to the side of his jaw, his goatee scratching her lips. 

"Pep?"

She hums against his chest.

"I like it. Your hair."

She presses her smile into his sternum. The metal of the arc reactor digs into her cheek. She falls into sleep gently, following the rise and fall of that blue light.


End file.
